


More Fortunate Fate

by Shokkou



Category: Fallen London | Echo Bazaar
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-05
Updated: 2020-11-05
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:00:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27394609
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shokkou/pseuds/Shokkou
Summary: There must be a Third City but which city was ultimately a matter of chance, not destiny.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	More Fortunate Fate

It's strange, the things that can change the course of history. For instance, to those who have been trapped for two dozen centuries getting out a few years earlier or later wouldn't seem like it would made any difference at all considering the length of their imprisonment. But unbeknownst to them a few years was all it took for the tree of possibilities to branch in radically different directions. For in one when they broke free the only option available to ensure their continued freedom demanded a high price indeed, while in the other they emerged from their confinement as a very different city was being besieged.

Admittedly, as cities went this one wasn't ideal for their purposes. It wasn't a proper capital, just the administrative centre for a small part of an empire, and whether the local ruler, a mere governor, even had the authority to agree to a sale was more than a little uncertain. Ordinarily, this would be more than enough for it to be rejected as an option out of hand but after being imprisoned for millennia they were desperate.

So was the city and its ruler. The siege had dragged on for months, hope dwindling as fast as their supplies, with no sign of aid in sight. None except them. So they made their offer.

The enemy outside the city's walls intend to destroy it and slaughter all within they said, and could prove. There was no lie there. Aid from the rest of the empire will not come they said, and there was no lie there either.

Sell us this city and it may not see many more sunrises but it will stand for centuries by the shores of a different sea and its people will live, they said. You and those you love will live. And while they may have omitted various details, there was no actual lie there.

The ruler was reluctant, still holding out hope that there was another way and afraid of the consequences of selling what belonged to the empire rather than him and of what would happen to the city if he did. But eventually, when the city's fall stopped being an "if" and became an all too imminent "when", there was no hope left and the ire of his superiors ceased to matter. The city would fall no matter what but he could still chose the manner in which it fell. Better darkness than death and destruction. With a heavy heart and hoping he wasn't damning everyone in the city along with himself, he accepted their offer.

And as the city's walls were about to be breached by those intent on its destruction, bats descended on Melite.

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, this started as me randomly musing about which other cities would be interesting to drop into the Neath, which led to the realisation that a different Third City would change a heck of a lot. People expressed interest in seeing a fic on the subject when I brought it up and inspiration struck so here it is. Sorry that there isn't much of it. There may or may not be more in the future depending on how cooperative the creative process is and if I can figure out how to handle the swarm of butterflies that my prevention of the major underpinnings of canon would have unleashed.
> 
> The "lucky" city for those who are interested; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melite_%28ancient_city%29


End file.
